“Ty . . .”
“I just want my wife back, E. I want my life back.”
“You can’t just have it back,” she whispers. “Things were burned.” She looks at me through her thick lashes. “I was burned.”
“I’m sorry.”
She blows out a breath and glances quickly down the hallway. Swallowing roughly, she hesitates a long moment. When she looks at me again, something has changed. Her bottom lip quivers, her brows pull together in a concerted effort to maybe hold herself together.
“I could’ve helped you, Tyler. If you would’ve told me how you felt, what you were going through, we could’ve fixed it. But you didn’t trust me, and I can’t . . .”
Tears well up again and I reach for her. My heart cracking in my chest, she bats my hands away.
“Stop,” she says, her voice void of any strength.
“You want me to stand here and watch you cry and not want to comfort you?”
Smiling through the tears, she breaks my heart even more. “You can go, and I’ll cry by myself. I’ve gotten pretty good at it lately.”
“Damn it, Elin. What do we have if we don’t have each other? Everything we’ve ever wanted—every dream, hope, every idea of a family and a future—are tied together. You can’t just walk away from that.”
“I didn’t,” she says, finally breaking her silence. “You did.”
“I did not. I walked away to protect you.”
“Funny, I’m walking away to protect me too.”
Her voice cracks, and I don’t care anymore. I grab her and pull her into me, and she, surprisingly, lets me.
She doesn’t make an effort to embrace me, but I don’t care. I just hold her for dear life.
“Our future is in front of us,” I whisper, brushing the hair off her shoulder. “We can figure this out. I’ll get a new job, which you’ll love, because I know you hated the mine, and we can start a family.” I press a kiss to the top of her head. “I can’t wait to see your belly swollen with my baby.”
Her body shakes. I rub my hands down her back, not sure if she’s laughing or crying.
“We’ll paint the nursery and stay up late trying to figure out how to put together the bed and all the baby—”
“Stop,” she begs, her head buried in my shirt. “Please. Stop.”
Squeezing her tighter, I feel her emotionally backing away from me. She’s building some sort of barrier to keep me out, and I have to figure out how to tear it down quick.
“I swear to you, I’ll be everything you need. I’ll—”
She pulls back, her lips forming a thin line. “You were always everything I needed,” she says quietly. “I can’t imagine being with another man.”
“It’s a good fucking thing, because you won’t be with another man,” I point out. “I’ll kill him.”
“You aren’t the problem, Ty. It’s just . . .” She struggles, looking at the floor.
She’s all over the place tonight, both physically and mentally, and I can’t figure out what’s causing all of this vacillating. One minute she’s in my arms and the next she’s telling me she wants me to leave and never come back.
What the fuck?
A sick feeling crawls through my veins. “I think there’s more to this than you’re letting on.”
She gulps and turns her back on me, walking into the kitchen. I follow.
“Elin?”
“You need to go,” she says, her voice steady.
“I need to find out what in the hell happened while I was gone.”
She pops open the back door and leans against it. She looks at me with no feeling, void of any sadness, anger . . . or love. “Doesn’t matter, Ty.”
“That’s bullshit,” I scoff at her blatant lie. Her eyes go wide as I stand tall in front of her, the next words out of my mouth ones I don’t want to say, yet I have to. “You weren’t with someone else were you?”
“God, no!” she says, shocked. It’s obvious the idea is new to her, and that has me sighing in relief.
“Thank fuck.”
“Go, please, before I call Jiggs.”
“What’s he gonna do?” I chuckle.
She doesn’t flinch. “Go, Ty.”
My blood starts to boil, my fists curling at my sides. If she thinks this is over just like that, she’s out of her damn mind.
Her gaze is fire, her sadness turned to fury. I feel the fight begin, the switch we are all too familiar with.
“This isn’t over, you know that, right?” I say, heading to the door. “I’m just leaving so we don’t get into some huge argument and say things we can’t take back.”